Despite the exponential growth in cell phone usage in South Africa, from 13 million subscribers in 2002 to at least 49 million subscribers today, uptake of cell phone banking in the same period lags. Utilising Rogers’ innovation adoption framework, this research examines banking consumers’ perceptions of cell phone banking attributes, and how these may affect adoption. A survey of 124 cell phone users from Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo Provinces participated in the study. Results indicate an improvement in cell phone banking uptake compared to past years. Perceptions of risk and security concerns appear to slow the adoption rate. While banking institutions have done a lot in launching cell phone banking, focussing attention on in-house promotion and customer demonstrations of cell phone banking may further improve adoption rate.

The purpose of this research was to assess the effects of entrepreneurship leadership on youth’s entrepreneurial intentions in Gauteng province, South Africa. To test this relationship and attempt to answer the research question, “To what extent does entrepreneurship leadership influence youth entrepreneurial intentions post-COVID-19?” a conceptual model supported by the theory of Planned Behaviour was adopted. Data were collected from 825 youths in Gauteng province, South Africa, through a self-administered questionnaire. The Likert scale was applied to the questionnaire. Entrepreneurship leadership was observed to directly relate to attitude towards entrepreneurship and perceived environmental support and entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial action. Furthermore, the results provide evidence that the three antecedents of entrepreneurial intention: attitude towards entrepreneurship, perceived entrepreneurial abilities and perceived COVID-19 environment influence entrepreneurial intention. Participation in entrepreneurship leadership was observed to positively influence youth intentions to become entrepreneurs. Furthermore, policymakers are encouraged to ensure the implementation of regulations that are conducive to business operations and stimulate youth participation in entrepreneurial activities. The obtained results suggest that attitude towards entrepreneurship and perceived environmental support are observed to completely and partially mediate (respectively) the relationship between three independent variables (entrepreneurship leadership, perceived post-COVID-19 environment and entrepreneurship education) and entrepreneurship intention. Leadership in entrepreneurship is crucial as it creates direction for the business in the post-COVID-19 era. This study attempts to address the gap in the literature concerning the effects of entrepreneurial factors on entrepreneurial intentions through the use of Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour.

In the early stage of business, which is where most new ventures fail, many entrepreneurs experience discrepancies between their entrepreneurial expectations and business realities. These discrepancies referred to by this paper as an entrepreneurial gap (EG) are, therefore, among other factors, professed to be responsible for the high attrition rate of emerging ventures in South Africa. An oversight in this area of EG, despite the provision of most required resources, may still lead to business failure. This paper argues that there is more yet to be comprehended regarding early-stage business success, concerning the entrepreneur component. The purpose of this paper was to recognize and classify factors responsible for establishing entrepreneurial gaps with the intent to improve the level of preparedness among emerging entrepreneurs. A qualitative approach with in-depth interviews was employed in the data collection. ATLAS ti 8 was used to unpack factors that instigate entrepreneurial gaps while posing challenges to emerging entrepreneurs in the early stage of business. The groups identified were: entrepreneur management, familism and personal management. The findings provide information that is credible to improving the level of preparedness among emerging entrepreneurs, and could be used by mentors, coaches and relevant support structures.

This paper ¹ 1 This paper is an extended version of the guide initially produced by the author for the mobile application, Postgraduate Thesis Supervisor, which is freely available on Google Play Store. View all notes provides commerce PhD students with advice on how to structure research proposals. In particular, the paper addresses the question: How should a PhD candidate in entrepreneurship (or another commerce discipline) present a research proposal? The paper guides students through the various stages of proposal writing. Firstly, the fundamental aspects of business research and their implications on postgraduate research proposals are discussed. Secondly, the focus of the paper turns to presenting some common proposal evaluation criteria used. Thirdly, the structure and components of a proposal are explained and specific guidance on how to present each component of the proposal is provided. The paper concludes by discussing technical aspects of academic writing including language, references and plagiarism.